Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Warped Jungle 17
After returning to the shelter, the first thing Perry Yates did was use the Sun Energy she had absorbed during the day to dry her clothes.
After all, she would be staying here for several more days, and getting sick was not an option.
Once her clothes, body, and hair were dry, the sticky, clammy feeling finally vanished, and she felt much more refreshed.
"Um, Giselle, can you help me too?"
Turning her head, she saw Clarence staring at her eagerly.
She placed her hand on Clarence’s head, and a warm energy emanated from her palm.
A dozen seconds later, the moisture on Clarence’s body was instantly dried.
"What are you doing?"
Perry Yates watched, bewildered, as Clarence bustled about, holding a large leaf he had found somewhere.
"Collecting rainwater," Clarence said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Didn’t you know? Rainwater is a rare source of clean water in nature. You can drink it directly."
"That may be true, but this isn’t Cerulea. It’s better to be careful."
Ever since learning that the last ten days of the game would become extremely dangerous, Perry Yates had been on high alert.
The recent rain had come on strong and left just as quickly. Perry Yates felt that something was off.
Seeing that Clarence was still collecting rainwater, she decided to collect some herself and quietly used Ascension on it.
’I hope I’m just overthinking this.’
[Contaminated Rainwater: Do not let it remain on your skin for more than an hour. Otherwise, you don’t want to know what will happen.
After Ascension, the contaminant in the rainwater has been eliminated, but direct consumption is still not recommended.]
Seeing the result, an "I knew it" expression appeared on Perry Yates’s face.
She quickly got up to stop Clarence from collecting more rainwater, then took the opportunity to dry his hands and clothes, which had gotten wet again.
"Stop collecting it. There’s something wrong with this rain."
"Something wrong?" Clarence’s eyes widened. "How do you know?"
Perry Yates ignored Clarence’s question. Instead, she pulled him along and started jumping forcefully on the floor of the shelter several times.
The entire treetop began to shake violently, and countless drops fell like rain.
Only after all the rainwater had been completely shaken from the canopy did Perry Yates stop jumping. Then, she once again dried herself, Clarence, and their surroundings.
After finishing all this, she let out a sigh of relief and flopped onto the ground.
Clarence was still stuck on his previous question. He looked at Perry Yates eagerly, his face clearly asking for an explanation.
"This rainwater is contaminated," Perry Yates said. "If it stays on your skin for more than an hour, something unpredictable will happen."
Hearing this, Clarence was first startled. Then, remembering he had just been collecting rainwater with his bare hands, he almost instinctively wiped them furiously on his clothes twice.
"Can I ask... how do you know that?"
Perry Yates rested her chin on her hand and said casually, "The plants here told me."
Clarence didn’t doubt this explanation. After all, no one would joke about something like this, especially since Perry Yates had just dried not only them but also the area surrounding the shelter.
"We shouldn’t go out until the rain stops. No, even after it stops, it’s probably best not to go out."
After all, the ground below was covered in contaminated rainwater; they could get afflicted at any moment.
Having made up their minds, the two of them stayed cooped up in the shelter.
On the twenty-second day of the game, the rain outside showed no signs of stopping, continuing to drizzle endlessly.
To ensure their safety, they began to reinforce the shelter, gathering various branches to fill in any potential gaps.
Of course, before doing so, Perry Yates would first dry all the leaves.
Because they couldn’t let the rain stay on their skin for more than an hour, their work was slow.
It wasn’t until the twenty-fourth day of the game that they finally finished reinforcing the shelter.
During this time, they had plenty of food, so they didn’t have to worry about that. Their only lack was a water source, which they could get from wild fruits.
To make the shelter even safer, Perry Yates went so far as to expend her energy, spending a full day to use Ascension on the entire structure.
Of course, she did this in secret, as she had no intention of revealing her Talent.
From Clarence’s perspective, she had simply expended her energy to dry the entire shelter, inside and out.
[A Cobbled-Together Shelter: Your so-called reinforcements have made it a bit sturdier, but it will still be obliterated when faced with real danger.
After Ascension, the shelter’s durability and concealment have been significantly improved. To thank you for their Ascension, the Caspian is willing to offer you a degree of protection.]
After reading this description, Perry Yates was so excited she almost laughed out loud. She never expected that simply using Ascension on the shelter would bring such a wonderful surprise.
On the twenty-sixth day of the game, the light, drizzling rain gradually grew heavier, turning into a moderate downpour.
Perry Yates and Clarence stayed inside the shelter, unworried about the rain seeping in.
Just then, the sound of a battle suddenly erupted outside.
Hearing the noise, the two of them peered out through the peepholes they had made earlier.
Below them, two players were fighting.
But to call them "players" was a stretch; their appearance no longer resembled that of a human.
Their clothes were in tatters, and countless purple Tentacles grew from their bodies, a dense and disgusting sight.
They roared, having completely lost all human reason.
Perry Yates and Clarence had seen such scenes countless times over the past few days.
According to their theory, if the rainwater remained on someone’s body for more than an hour, those dense, purple Tentacles would begin to grow.
And once those Tentacles grew to a certain number, they would begin to devour the host’s sanity, turning them into a completely irrational beast that knew only slaughter.
’Thinking of the name of this game, "The Warped Jungle"... so this is the "warping" they were talking about?’
’Survival games really are this terrifying.’
Perry Yates and Clarence made it through the last few days of the game shaken but unharmed. Every day, beasts or completely warped players would pass under their tree, sometimes even fighting, but miraculously, no matter what happened, no one ever discovered their location.
Before they knew it, the final day had arrived.
Perry Yates had prepared early. Since the game rules stated that they could only take what was in their system backpacks, she stuffed all her extra items into her Space Backpack, then put the Space Backpack into her system backpack.
After she finished all this, a sudden BEEP sounded in her ear, followed by the familiar, cold voice of the system.
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